Oubliette
by Wackysocks
Summary: "This is an oubliette. The Labyrinth's full of 'em." So Hoggle had said, long ago. In her anger at Jareth, she had forgotten. And now she was truly stuck, and he was unable to help her. Would she live to see him again? Would he be able to find her?


**Oubliette**

Disclaimer: I do not own anything – all are property of Jim Henson, et. al.

_Stupid, stupid, stupid!_

Sarah huffed out a breath as she stalked down a corridor of the Labyrinth, the skirts of her silken dress swishing. Her soft leather boots made no noise as she walked on the stone. The only thing she could hear, in fact, was her angry _hmph_s and the quiet _whisk-whisk _of silk.

_Stupid!_ she thought angrily again. _He is the most arrogant, controlling, __stupid__ . . . _

Sarah let out another noisy exhalation and paused in her furious walking to lean against the cold stone wall, narrowly missing an outcropping of weeds that would have knocked the delicate golden tiara right off her head. Anger boiled inside her. _How dare he tell me what I can and cannot do. How __dare__ he!_

Standing still was a mistake. Sarah resumed her furious stride, walking further down the corridor as she reflected on the events of that afternoon.

_She had just finished her magic lesson. Her progress was astounding, her instructor had informed her – such that she would soon begin learning how to move through the air. Or, as Sarah had thought of it when she was mortal, disappear from one place and reappear in another. _

_But this news had not seemed to budge Jareth one bit. _

"_No," he said firmly, a touch of anger in his eyes. "I do not know why you insist on asking this question when you already know the answer. Children do that, not queens."_

"_Do not call me a child!" Sarah had hissed at him._

"_Then do not act like one," he said steely, his eyes full of anger now. "You are new at learning magic. The Labyrinth will not recognize you for a while, as your core is changing. Thus, to venture into it would be to beckon its forces against you as an enemy. This is unsafe. And as I have now explained this more times than is necessary for any being, perhaps you should go find yourself a doll and play with it, as befitting a little girl instead of a monarch."_

_Sarah had shrieked with anger and swung a fist at his head. Jareth had not moved out of the way, but instead disappeared a split second before her fist would have made contact with his eye, his steely glare holding hers right until the second he was no longer there._

"_Aaaaarrrrgggghhhhh!" Sarah had yelled. Then, after ripping down wall hangings and throwing a couple glass figurines that produced some very satisfactory crashes as they splintered into pieces, she had stalked out of the castle. _

_If he is going to restrict me and act more like my father than my husband_, Sarah thought angrily, _then I will have to be the one to act with dignity here._

Sarah wasn't sure that dignity meant sneaking out the back way, but she had done it anyways. And now here she was, not an hour after her fight with Jareth, deep in the Labyrinth.

Slowly, her anger melted away as she walked. The sun shone gently on the Labyrinth's walls, and Sarah could feel its warmth soaking into her hair. Such warmth was lovely and comforting, and Sarah slowly felt her anger subside into stubbornness and determination.

_I'll show him,_ she thought. _I'll show him I can be in the Labyrinth without being in danger. It'll be just fine. I'll stay out here for a while and then go back to the castle._

Birds chirped, alighting on the stone walls to stare quizzically at her before flying away again. Yellow-petalled stone thistles grew through some of the cracks in the walls, lifting their golden heads to the sun. Wispy lady's veil hung down from the tops of the walls, the misty silver fronds glowing and glinting in the light. Sarah smiled. It was just so beautiful out here, and she had missed it so.

After a while, she turned out of the corridor to find herself in a hedge maze not unlike one she had been in so many years ago. She wandered for hours. The hedge maze gave way to a twisting, stony maze that felt like she was going in circles, which gave way to a multi-levelled stone maze that felt like a combination of Jareth's Escher room and the stone maze she had gone through as a human. She thought she might have even seen the stone hands plinth in the distance.

As time wore on, the sun dipped behind a cloud. Several clouds, in fact. And as more time went on, the clouds took on an ominous gray color. A chill tinged the air. No more birds sang, and Sarah saw fewer flowers.

It didn't feel lovely any more, and just as Sarah began to think about returning to the castle, she realized that she lost.

Determined, Sarah kept moving. _No Labyrinth will get me down_, she thought firmly. _Besides. I am Queen – the Labyrinth would not turn its back on its queen._

After what felt like ages later, Sarah's determination began to wane. She thought she had turned around long ago, but all of her turnings only seemed to take her further into the Labyrinth and farther away from where she really wanted to go. Maybe that was the key.

Worried now, Sarah exhaled and paused to lean against another stone wall. _Where should I go from here? I have no idea where I am . . . _The sky rumbled threateningly. Sarah frowned at it. "Really?" she said out loud. "Rain? How cliché."

She pushed herself away from the wall and began to walk forward again. She had not gone two steps when the ground collapsed underneath her. With a shriek, she fell – arms and legs flailing, skirt flying up above her waist.

Seconds later, she landed with a sickening thud that caused a _crack!_ in her left leg. Pain blazed up her thigh and she yelled in agony. It felt like fire, like ice, like a beating. All in one. Tears came unbidden to Sarah's eyes, both at the pain and at the horror of watching a circular hole close above her head, plunging her into total darkness.

_Of course. An oubliette,_ Sarah thought through the pain. _Hoggle did say that the Labyrinth was full of them. Ohhhh, my leg!_

Reaching down revealed little to Sarah except that she was bleeding, and bleeding a lot if she could deduce anything from the amount of wetness she felt on her hand.

The torment did not cease. Instead it began to throb, pulsing with pain as if taking on a light of its own. Sarah could do nothing to stop it. Her leg had to be broken – nothing else made sense – but she had no supplies and no knowledge of how to help herself. And even if she did, she doubted she could have done anything anyways. The oubliette was so dark that she could not even see her hand in front of her face.

With agonizing pain in her leg and lower torso, Sarah had nothing to do but cry. And so she did. She cried and cried – screaming with the bursts of agony that shot up her leg like rods of molten metal and groaning at the larger throbs that made the pain pulse like a living creature inside of her. She cried until she had no tears left and then lay there, heaving and gasping for air like a dying fish.

Lights began sparkling in her field of vision – little dots chasing each other in circles. Changing colors from white to yellow to orange and back to white again. Sarah felt more exhausted trying to follow them all, but taking her focus away from the dots meant being overwhelmed by the pulsing swirls on the edge of her vision that threatened to surround her as soon as she lost her focus. But she could only hold on for so long.

As the swirling colors overwhelmed her, a quote from Sarah's magic instructor floated through her head.

"_Can Jareth spy on me?" Sarah had asked her instructor one day during her lesson._

"_I would not call it spying, your Majesty," her instructor had replied calmly. "His power is such that he can see whomever he wants in his crystal spheres. You will have a similar skill once you are fully developed. However, every power has a limit. This skill of his only allows the viewer to see people who are awake. Sleep protects you."_

Sarah had failed to see the protection in that when he had explained it to her, but had later understood it – it was the protection of making it more difficult for someone to put a knife in your back while you were unaware of the world around you.

And it was this same protection that would now work against her. One more thought floated through Sarah's head as she lost consciousness.

_Jareth._

o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o

Sarah floated through clouds of mist that pulsed all the colors of the rainbow and more. Long vines covered in flowers reach up to grasp her legs and twine around her torso, holding her still. The flowers burst into thorns, piercing her and making her bleed. Sarah tried to yell and pull free, but her entire body felt as if it was stuffed with cotton, and she could not move.

The vines changed, morphing into the arms of creatures that pulled her along the Labyrinth's dark, flickering corridors. They chanted to her, ominous chants that spoke of battles and death and wars, but she forgot the words as soon as they were said.

The dreams continued, ever changing and morphing into new ones. Sarah felt overwhelmed, trying to remember the people, the places, the importance of what was said to her. And all throughout, her left leg felt dead, as if a great weight had been placed on it. And then it began to hurt. A little at first, twinging as it had fallen asleep, then more and more and more . . .

Sarah opened her eyes to the blackness. She was lying on her side – that much she could tell. Her leg hurt. So much. A tear involuntarily blinked out of Sarah's eye, followed by another. It was cold in the oubliette, and the coldness seemed to seep into Sarah's bones. She shivered, supposing that part of it probably had to do with how her skirts had been tossed about. She probably didn't look very appropriate right now. As if that really mattered, though.

Sarah's head felt heavy. And she was thirsty. Oh, her mouth ached for a drink of water. Just one. Just a sip, even.

Tears continued to flow out of her eyes. How long had she been down here? Would she ever be found?

"Jareth," she croaked out loud. "I should . . . have listened . . ."

Two minutes later, the hole above her head opened. Light stung her eyes. But it was not sunlight, Sarah realized. It was the nighttime light – the stars and the moon. Just as she realized this, a hand took hold of hers. A hand that was strong, yet gentle; firm, yet soft. A hand belonging to a person whose grasp she would always know and always trust.

She strained her eyes to see his face. "Ja . . . Jareth . . ." she whispered, throat scratching against the words.

"Don't speak," he said softly, his face coming into her vision. His other hand brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes. "Don't speak, Sarah. Let me evaluate this."

Sarah stayed quiet. His hand never left hers, and it was this strength that held her now as what felt like pokes and prods elicited involuntary cries and gasps of agony. She knew he would never poke her, and his touch was always soft, but oh, how it hurt . . .

After some minutes, she felt the hum of magic in the air, and the pain in her leg receded. She breathed a sigh of relief, and more tears began streaming out of her eyes.

"It isn't what you think," Jareth said, reading her face. "I deadened the nerves in your leg. This injury is too much for my skill. I will summon a doctor for proper healing."

Gently, he scooped her into his arms. Despite his efforts, though, Sarah could not help but cry out at the discovery of injuries she had not thought about because of the pain in her leg. Bruises on her arms and back, scratches that stung and bled afresh when the scabs stretched and broke. And a new throbbing pain from the back of her head that Sarah suspected was the culprit of her aching head.

Sarah felt a soft wind on her face. She closed her eyes, letting the breeze kiss her tear-stained cheeks, and tried to forget the myriad of pains that covered her. Abruptly, it stopped. She wished it would come back.

"Sarah?" Jareth asked.

Sarah opened her eyes. He was looking down at her. She hadn't had this view of his face since their wedding day, when he carried her bridal style into her new castle home.

"Don't fall asleep," he said firmly. "You must stay awake." There was a tightness to his eyes, betraying his calm composure for the anxiety that he was feeling inside.

"Okay," Sarah croaked. "I . . . won' . . ." _Why can't I? _she thought. _It would be so nice to sleep a little bit._

Jareth began to walk. His slow, rhythmic gait certainly wasn't going to help the don't-fall-asleep cause. Sarah fought to keep her eyes open. _Focus on his face,_ she thought to herself. And she did – studying the elegant line of his nose against his cheekbones, the fierce set of his eyes, with the sweeping points of his eyelids that marked him as royalty. She had always loved that part about him. No other man she had ever met could even come close to the beauty that was Jareth's eyes. Jareth's face.

He looked down at her, and a small crease formed between his eyebrows as he frowned, slightly. "What are you staring at?" he asked.

"You're just . . . so beautiful," Sarah breathed, the words tumbling over each other. _Don't fall asleep_. "I . . . can't . . . believe it." _Keep your eyes open!_

The crease disappeared, replaced by a tugging at the corners of his mouth as he hid a smile. "You honor me," he replied softly. But there was a more tender set to his eyes now. His beautiful eyes.

The shimmer of magic rolled around them, and before Sarah could process what was going on, Jareth was giving orders to those she could not see. Still walking. Something about a doctor, and clean rooms, and bleeding. Jareth was bleeding? That wasn't good. Sway, sway, sway.

His face warped for a second. _No!_ Sarah focused hard, and his face straightened out. Not his face. He was just so beautiful.

But the minute she relaxed a little, his face warped again. Harder. Sarah didn't have the energy to refocus his face, and her eyelids were pulling themselves closed . . .

Sarah felt Jareth set her down on something soft. A bed. It must be a bed. That hand took hers again and held it. "Sarah," he said firmly. "Open your eyes. I know it's hard, but open your eyes."

Sarah dragged her eyes open. He was looking at her. "They . . . won' . . ." Her eyes tugged themselves closed again, and Sarah knew she would not be able to reopen them if she tried.

Jareth was speaking to someone again. Indistinct murmurs and mutterings. Jareth had always had a quiet voice, but he never muttered. She would have to tell him to speak more clearly. After she slept. Yes, after she slept. Then she would tell him.

His voice was in her ear now. "Sarah, open your mouth and drink this," he commanded quietly. His arm slid behind her and lifted her up. An involuntary cry escaped her lips, and before her mouth could close again, a cup was pressed to her lips. Liquid poured into her mouth.

Sarah swallowed quickly. The liquid was coming too fast – stop the liquid! Swallow. Swallow. _Please, let it stop_.

Mercifully, it stopped.

"Now you can sleep, Sarah," Jareth's voice said again. "Now you can sleep."

o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o

Sarah woke the next morning. She blinked once or twice. Her mind was clear now, and for the next several minutes, she sat there quietly. Remembering everything. Their fight. Her defiance. Her fall. His rescue.

She closed her eyes, groaning inwardly. _I am such a foolish idiot_, she thought. _I am the biggest of fools. _

Something sat next to her injured leg, causing the mattress to dip a little bit. Sarah's eyes shot open.

It was him, of course. Looking at her in that way of his. Waiting for her to say something.

"I-" Sarah began, then stopped, flushing. "I am the biggest of fools." To her horror, tears began leaking out of her eyes. _I thought I had cried all these out yesterday! This is already embarrassing – do I really have to cry? Ugghhh._ She could not have stopped them if she had wanted to.

"I am so sorry," she said, her voice cracking. Her body _must_ be conspiring against her to make her look bad. "I was so stupid. I am the worst-"

"Sshhhh," Jareth said softly. Sarah was weeping now, uncontrollably. He reached up to stroke her face, to wipe some of the tears from her eyes. "It's over, Sarah. It's over."

"But I could have died," Sarah gasped out. "All because I was so foolish and . . . and . . . and I just-"

"But you didn't die," Jareth said. "I found you."

"I just love you," wept Sarah, finishing the sentence he had interrupted. "I just love you so much."

Jareth smiled. "I will always find you, my heart."

Sarah looked at him. She took a couple deep breaths to steady her voice, and then said. "I will listen to you now, whenever you tell me about the Labyrinth. You know it. You know how it works – far better than I do."

Jareth just smiled. Softly, in that gentle way of his. Not a touch of I-told-you-so in it. "I should not have said the things that I did, either. We must both act better next time we disagree."

Sarah nodded. And then frowned a little. "Am I okay?" she asked. "My leg . . ."

"You were healed," Jareth said. "You will be weak for a while, and you should not walk on it until tomorrow, but you are healed. Much of your body's strength was used, though, so you will not be able to return to your magic lessons for at least a month."

Sarah nodded. It was what she deserved, anyway.

Jareth frowned. "Don't beat yourself up too hard, Sarah," he said. "It is what it is, and it's over now." He got up and moved closer to her, sitting next to her side and placing her arm on his lap so as not to sit on it.

"What's important now," he said, looking into her eyes, "is how we move forward from this."

Sarah smiled. "I don't deserve you."

Jareth smiled back, a touch impishly. "You can make it up to me later. When you're stronger." His hand cupped her face, and his smiled grew. "I want something special, mind."

Sarah reached up to clasp her hands behind the back of his neck. "You'll get the works," she promised, pulling his mouth down to hers.

Kissing him was something Sarah could never quite describe. Something she could never get enough of. Something she could lose herself in, completely. Something that never made her more aware of who she was.

A minute or so later, he pulled away from her. "Don't overdo it," he murmured softly. "I don't want to have to heal you again."

Sarah nodded quietly, suddenly tired again. "I think I want to go back to sleep," she said with a yawn.

Jareth got up, moved around to the other side of the bed, and laid down next to her, his arm snaking around her midsection. Sarah turned her face toward him, eyes closed, and felt his soft breath on her face as he kissed her forhead.

"Then sleep, Sarah. I will be here when you wake up."

Sarah slept. And this time, her dreams were quiet and pleasant and happy, for even her subconscious knew when he was there. And when he was there with her, she was safe.

* * *

**Author's Note: This little storyline kept popping into my head and threatening me, so I finally got it down. Maybe now I can focus on writing my sequel to **_**Falling In Love**_**. For those of you waiting so patiently for it – it's in progress! It's going to be longer, so it's taking more time to work on it. I'm getting there, though, and I will absolutely finish it!**

**Please review and make my day!**

**Wackysocks**


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